JPH0443731B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is a production instruction device, particularly a production instruction device that is useful when performing a series of related multi-step operations in multi-product, multi-part production. This invention relates to improvements in display devices.

[Prior Art] In recent years, there has been a strong demand for a production system that enables mass production of different types of products on automobile assembly lines and the like.

On the other hand, in conventional high-mix, low-volume production, the so-called kanban system has been adopted. This method is effective in supplying the correct parts to a predetermined assembly stage without excess or deficiency by moving kanban cards prepared for each assembly part.

However, although such a kanban system is effective in supplying each part, it is not necessarily effective in terms of workability at actual processing or assembly sites.

For example, errors in kanban cards caused by the operator and the effort required to read the kanban cards occur.

In order to compensate for these shortcomings of the kanban system and effectively apply it to multi-product mass production, a production instruction device has been proposed that displays the parts to be assembled, work procedures, etc. (hereinafter referred to as production instructions) to workers. has been done.

In conventional production instruction devices, production instructions are generally given to a series of closely related work stages (blocks), and workers can perform their own work based on this display.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The conventional production instruction device has the following problems.

Since production instructions are given for each block, it is necessary for each worker to take the time and effort to judge the content of his/her own work.

Since production instructions are given for each block and not for each work stage, defective products that occur during work flow directly to the next work stage, making it difficult to rework at each work stage.

When the need for interrupt work arises, the production instructions must be completely changed for the relevant block.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to provide production instructions to individual workers and eliminate defective products in progress. An object of the present invention is to provide an improved production instruction device that can easily issue production instructions regarding rework and interrupt work.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized by including a programmable controller having the following configuration.

A plurality of unit indicating sections arranged corresponding to the working stages.

An input section that takes in instructions about work procedures for a predetermined number of work objects as normal and interrupt signals. Data that connects the unit instruction section and input section, respectively, and supplies instructions about a series of work procedures from the input section to the unit instruction section. bus.

Further, the unit instruction section further has the following configuration.

a Production instructions section that displays instructions supplied via the data bus.

b. A production quantity indicator that displays the production quantity based on instructions supplied via the data bus, and displays this production quantity as the conveyor moves.

c. A deletion input unit for deleting data related to the stopped work object from the programmable controller when work on the work object is stopped in each work stage.

Therefore, in the present invention, each time the work for a predetermined number of production units is completed, instructions regarding a series of work procedures are taken in by the input section, and these instructions are supplied to each work stage. This eliminates the need for individual workers to judge their own work content, making it easier to rework defective products in progress and give production instructions regarding interrupt work.

[Embodiments] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall schematic configuration of a production instruction device according to the present invention, and shows a process for assembling a front axle of an automobile. For assembling the front axle, eleven working stages (stations) are installed in sequence along the assembly conveyor 10, and parts for the front axle of the automobile are sequentially fed to the assembly conveyor 10 from the first working stage.

A PC data bus 12 is provided along the assembly conveyor 10, which constitutes a programmable controller that is a feature of the present invention.

The programmable controller has an input section 1.
4 is provided, and a series of work procedure instructions are input as a normal input 100 or an interrupt input 102.

Further, an input section 14 is provided to be connected to the PC data bus 12, and the input section 14 further includes:
A data converter 18 connected to the card reading sensor 16 is connected.

The card reading sensor 16 reads the production instruction data 20 shown on the data card 20 shown in FIG.
This data 20a is read into the input section 14 as a normal input 100.

A production instruction section 22 is connected to the PC data bus 12, which corresponds to each work stage and issues production instructions to both the left and right sides of the assembly conveyor 10. Also,
The production instruction section 22 is attached with a production number instruction section 24 for instructing the number of production units.

The production instruction unit 22 includes a data converter 26 that converts data related to production instructions inputted through the PC data bus 12, and parts shelves 28 and 30 that are arranged on the left and right sides of the assembly conveyor 10 and have a parts instruction function. and a sensor 32 attached to the parts shelf 28 to detect the removal of parts.

Further, a deletion input section 34 is connected to the PC data bus 12 corresponding to each work stage, and an alarm 36 is provided in proximity to the input section 14, for example.

Note that an output switching pin board (not shown in FIG. 1) is provided for switching the display contents in each of the production instruction sections 22. FIG. 3 shows a partial configuration of this pinboard.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

A normal input 100 indicates assembly work performed sequentially on a normal assembly line, and in the embodiment, the front axle assembly procedure of every 10 cars is input from the card reading sensor 16 via the data converter 18. 10
The work procedure instructions summarized for each machine are input to the programmable controller, and the data of the procedures and parts used for each work stage is transferred according to the sequencer program stored in the programmable controller's memory element, usually PROM. becomes.

The work procedure instructions are formatted by a data card 20 as shown in FIG. 2, and the data card 20 in the embodiment has a production instruction kanban written on the bottom and production instruction data 20a on the top. is stamped on a punch card or mark card, and these data include checking the back and front of the card, confirming the presence or absence of the card, specifying the number of pieces to be produced, and specifying the model to be produced.

The data card 20 is inserted into a card reading sensor 16 including a photocoupler, and its production data is read out photoelectrically, and this signal is converted into a predetermined digital signal by a data converter 18 and output as a normal input 100. It is input to the input section 14.

On the other hand, the interrupt input 102 is an interrupt instruction sent to the input section 14 when the normal input is completed in the case of modification or special assembly to the conventional normal assembly procedure described above.
A machine or group of five machines can be interrupted.

As described above, the automobile to be assembled is conveyed to the input stage of the assembly conveyor 10, and the assembly procedure is supplied to the input section 14 of the programmable controller, and the sequentially linked assembly work is started at each work stage.

The data bus 12 sequentially processes the work procedure instructions given to the input section 14 by a sequencer program stored therein, and then sequentially transfers them to each stage.

The data transferred to each work stage includes predetermined work instructions and production number instruction data, the work instructions are displayed by the production instruction section 22 at the position that is most easily visible to each worker, and the production number instructions are Instructions are given by the instruction section 24.

In the present invention, the work instructions are characterized in that necessary work instructions are displayed separately for the right side and the left side of the assembly conveyor 10, and the work instructions in the embodiment include product number instructions, right and left side instructions R/L.
The data from the data bus 12, including the parts instruction, is directly used as the product number instruction and right/left instruction data to cause the photoelectric display board to display the product number and right/left lighting in accordance with the 7-segment instruction.

Further, the production instruction section 22 is provided with a data converter 26, and the signals supplied from the data bus 12 can be used at the data converter 26 to instruct parts on the parts shelves 28 and 30 for each right and left side. .

Therefore, on each parts shelf 28, 30, the parts required at the relevant work stage are indicated by lamps, etc. on the parts shelf, and the worker can easily visually identify and take out the necessary assembly parts. This has the advantage of reliably preventing assembly errors and the like, as well as significantly shortening the time required to read instructions in the conventional kanban system.

Further, the parts instruction in the embodiment includes a function of feeding back to the programmable controller whether or not a predetermined part has been taken out, and
The sensors 32 provided on each of the assembly conveyors 10 and 8 detect the correct removal of parts and supply a part removal completion signal to the programmable controller, and the assembly conveyor 10 confirms that the correct parts have been assembled.
movement or data transfer of a programmable controller.

Therefore, according to the parts management of the embodiment, it is possible to reliably detect parts assembly errors at each work stage.

In the embodiment, the product number instruction for each work stage is displayed in a 7-segment numerical display for easy viewing by the worker, and the right side or left side of the corresponding work is indicated by lighting or flashing either R/L. At the same time, the corresponding component shelves of the component display sections provided separately on the right and left lights up or blinks.

The production quantity indicating unit 24 displays the number of units to be processed for each work procedure instruction given, and in the case of work procedure instructions for 10 units grouped into one set, it displays "10" when processing the first unit, and then sequentially displays the number of units to be processed. The number is subtracted every time the conveyor moves, and the operator can always check which lot of a given lot is currently being displayed.

In FIG. 1, the deletion input section 34 is shown only in the third working stage, but this deletion input section 34 is similarly provided in all 11 working stages.

In reality, the deletion input section 34 is provided on the keyboard of the production instruction panel provided for each work stage.
When workpieces are reworked at each work stage, the workpieces are removed from the assembly conveyor 10, and the corresponding data is deleted from the data transferred to the next stage in the programmable controller at that time.

Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent these useless data from adversely affecting the subsequent stages.

As described above, when all the 10 specified lots have completed their work, the production quantity indicator 24 in the first stage of the programmable controller displays "00", and the first worker receives the data card. It can be replaced and work on the next lot or interrupted work can be continued. In the embodiment, such completion of one lot can be performed as a no-data alarm for the first working stage on the data bus 12, and an alarm from the alarm 36 can be used to issue an instruction to read the next data.

As described above, according to the production instruction device according to the present embodiment, a group of work procedure instructions divided into a predetermined relatively small number of lots, for example, about 10 units, can be collectively sent using data cards. It is possible to reliably issue production instructions between multiple work stages that are read and linked by a programmable controller, significantly increasing flexibility in each work and significantly increasing work efficiency.

The data transferred by the data bus 12 is converted into a signal by the PROM at each work stage, but the display contents of the production instruction section 22 at each stage can be arbitrarily switched using the output switching pin board of the display device. Is possible. FIG. 3 shows a pinboard arrangement for switching such outputs.

As is clear from the figure, the outputs 1 to 11 corresponding to the working stages 1 to 11 are arranged in horizontal rows on the pinboard, and the working stages 1 to 11 are arranged in vertical columns. Therefore, by inserting pins such as those shown by black circles into the corresponding portions of the matrix circuit formed by both vertical and horizontal columns, it is possible to switch and display a desired output at an arbitrary work stage.

That is, if a pin board as shown in FIG. 3 is employed in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the output display destination can be set arbitrarily. for example,
If you switch the pinboard as shown in Figure 3, output 1 will be displayed on the first work stage, but output 2 will be displayed on the first work stage.
is displayed on the third working stage and output 3 is displayed on the fifth working stage, and the exchange between the working stages can be changed simply by changing the pin position on the pin board.

Further, according to this embodiment, necessary parts can be reliably indicated on the parts shelves 28 and 30 at each work stage, and a shutter that is forcibly opened and closed by an air cylinder is provided on the parts shelf. The opening and closing of the shutter can be controlled on and off by the instruction signal according to the present invention, and necessary parts can be taken out accurately. If such parts shelves 28, 30 are used, the worker will not be able to take out the wrong part,
This has the advantage of preventing human errors.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, production instructions are given corresponding to a group of work stages that perform irregular continuous work according to a predetermined sequence, so that workers can easily perform their own work. There is no need to judge the content of the work, and even when a request for out-of-sequence work such as rework of defective products in progress or interrupt work occurs, it is possible to easily respond to the request. Therefore, when production is performed using the production instruction device of the present invention, work errors and the like can be reduced and production efficiency can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a preferred embodiment in which the production instruction device according to the present invention is used in an automobile front axle assembly process, and FIG. 2 shows an example of the data card for issuing production instructions in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the bin board arrangement for switching the output of the programmable controller and the output of each work stage in the embodiment of the present invention. 10... Assembly conveyor, 12... PC data bus, 14... Input section, 22... Production instruction section, 24
...Production quantity instruction section, 34...Deletion input section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A production display device that displays instructions for sequentially performing irregular continuous operations in a predetermined sequence on a plurality of operation stages arranged along a conveyor, comprising: A plurality of unit instruction sections arranged corresponding to the stages, an input section that takes in instructions regarding work procedures regarding a predetermined number of work objects as normal and interrupt signals, and the unit instruction sections and input section are respectively connected; a programmable controller having: a data bus that supplies instructions regarding the series of work procedures from an input section to a unit instruction section; the unit instruction section includes a production instruction that displays instructions supplied via the data bus; and display the production quantity based on the instructions supplied via the data bus, and as the conveyor moves,
A production number indicating section for displaying the production number; and a deletion input section for deleting data related to the stopped work object from the programmable controller when work on the work object is stopped in each work stage. Characteristic production instruction device. 2. In the device according to claim 1, the production instruction section is provided with: a parts shelf for displaying predetermined supplied parts; and a part shelf corresponding to the parts shelf, and detects whether the predetermined supplied parts have been taken out correctly. A production instruction device comprising: a sensor that outputs a detection result as a parts take-out signal; and a conveyor is controlled by the parts take-out signal.